The present invention relates generally to cartons for use in shipping a plurality of articles and more particularly to carton for use in shipping a plurality of articles which can be converted to display the plurality of articles contained therewithin.
It is a well known practice to employ cartons to package, store and transport sales articles from the manufacturer to the place of sale, such as a retail store. Conventionally, cartons, also referred to as containers, are formed from a one-piece blank made of corrugated paperboard which is suitably cut, scored and folded to produce a generally rectangularly shaped box. Once the carton reaches the place of sale, the articles held therewithin are unpackaged from the carton and are typically placed on display shelves.
One drawback of such cartons is that a significant amount of labor is required to remove the articles from the carton and, in turn, place them on the display shelves.
Accordingly, it is well known in the art for cartons which can be utilized to ship the plurality of sales articles to be convertible into a display device at the place of sale, thereby eliminating the labor required in transferring the articles from the carton to the shelves of the place of sale. Such cartons normally comprise a separable upper section which is torn away from the lower section by a tear strip or perforated tear line formed through panels of the carton to expose the packaged articles for display.
In U.S. Pat. No. 4,553,666 to Gullikson, there is disclosed a shipping and display carton with cut protection for contents. The shipping and display carton can be used for a plurality of plastic containers. The carton is formed from a flat blank that is folded into a slotted style container configuration with end flaps of sufficient size to effectively close the ends of the tubular configuration with a double thickness of corrugated board. A diagonal, perforated line is made in the underlying flaps and a diagonal cut designating line is marked on the overlying flaps. The cut designating line is also marked across the width of both the front panel and back panel joining the ends of the cut designating lines in the flaps. A small panel extends under the front panel cut designating line to protect the enclosed product. After the cut designating line has been cut, the carton is separated into two parts with the upper part discarded and the lower part serves as the display.
In U.S. Pat. No. 4,058,206 to Morse et al there is disclosed a display carton and blank therefor. The display carton comprises a one-piece blank cut and scored to form vertically disposed front, back and side panels and horizontally disposed top and bottom panels. A vertically disposed separate partition is further disposed intermediate the side panels and is attached to the front, back and bottom panels by lock tabs engaging accommodating slots formed through the panels. A continuous tear line is formed in the front, back, side, and top panels to divide the carton into a removable upper section and a lower section adapted to retain a plurality of upstanding packages therein for display purposes.
In U.S. Pat. No. 3,653,495 to Gray there is disclosed a shipping a display container in which the shipping container or carton has weakened portions which allow the container to divide into two display tray portions to display the plurality of articles therein.
Other patents of interest include U.S. Pat. No. 5,181,650 to Hollander et al, U.S. Pat. No. 4,978,009 to Pany, U.S. Pat. No. 2,947,637 to Fobiano, U.S. Pat. No. 2,723,026 to Paige, U.S. Pat. No. 2,675,913 to Hanson, U.S. Pat. No. 2,420,773 to Dorfinan, U.S. Pat. No. 2,152,079 to Mott, U.S. Pat. No. 2,131,391 to Schraffenberger and U.S. Pat. No. 1,925,102 to Levkoff.